All Beef Hot Dogs Today!

Today I’m making all beef hot dogs!

Last night at the grocery store I spotted a small beef bottom round roast that was marked down to $2.49 a pound and I couldn’t pass it up, so I decided to use it to make all beef hot dogs! The bottom round has a little marbling and a pretty thick fat cap on it and will suit hot dogs well without much trimming. I like my hot dogs to have a nice meat to fat ratio; 70/30 or 80/20 at the least. So here’s a quick rundown of how I made these hot dogs!

Just so you know, we’re not sponsored by any company or brands that are mentioned in our posts. We just tell or show you what works for us and the products we like to use.

The first thing to do is to place the front parts of the meat grinder in the freezer (I store mine there) to help keep the meat cold while grinding. The next step is to cut the roast up into chunks that will fit into the throat of the meat grinder; about 2×2 works well, then place the cut up meat in the freezer for about 40 mins. I like the meat to be around 35-37 degrees. This will keep the fat from smearing and aid in the grinding process.

Once the meat is cold, I run it through the medium plate of the grinder then place it in the fridge.

Next I dice up the smoked garlic and onions and measure out all the other ingredients in the recipe. I’ll list all the ingredients at the bottom.

Then I take the meat out of the fridge and add all the other ingredients except the ice water. Since I’m splitting this batch in half, I give it a good mixing to ensure the seasoning is evenly distributed through out the meat.

Next place the meat mixture into the food processer and turn it on and slowly add the ice water. it will form a meat “paste” kind of like a thick pancake batter. My food processer isn’t large enough to handle three pounds, so I split this batch of meat mixture and ice water in half. Once each batch is mixed together, it’s time to stuff them in casings.

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For these hot dogs I’m using a 25mm cellulose casing from The Sausage Maker. It kind of feels like plastic and is removed once the hot dogs are cooked. With these casings you can boil or smoke the hot dogs; I’m Smoking them!!

My sausage stuffer is pretty big (you can see it in the background) and it leaves about a pound of meat in the bottom that won’t press out. Since I’ve only got three pounds of meat and I want it all to be in casings, I’m using my little Makita “Jerky” gun (which is AWESOME maybe a modification post on that another time:) to stuff these casings. Normally, I would place the entire meat mixture in the stuffer but my jerky gun only handles about a pound at a time; so I form the meat into cylinders and place them one at a time in the gun then place the casing on the tube.

I use a zip tie to keep the meat in. The jerky gun isn’t ideal but works pretty well.. As you’re stuffing the hot dogs, make sure to not over stuff them or they may blow out. Its easier to get a tighter hot dog by an extra twist or two than to clean up a blow out! Yep, learned that the hard way 🙂

Once the stuffing is done its time to link them up. I did have a couple that kept wanting to unlink on me, next time I may just zip tie every link. Next it’s into the smoker.

I smoked the hot dogs until they reached an internal temp of 156 and then placed them in cold water. By the time they hit the water, the temp was right at 160. As you can see I had a couple stubborn ones that came unlinked.

Once the hot dogs cool off a bit the casings slide right off.

And here’s the final product. Certainly not perfect but extremely tasty!!

I hope you like the recipe! I think it’s a pretty good start for home made hot dogs.

The really good thing about making home made hot dogs is that you KNOW EXACTLY what’s in them or more importantly, what’s NOT in them 😉

I’m gonna play around with this recipe to make a “Red Hot” hot dog. For those customers who know me, that means bringing on the heat… maybe a little crushed red pepper or even a dash….or five of our Smoked Habanero?

Have fun with it and let me know what you come up with!

ALL BEEF HOT DOGS

• 2 LBS BOTTOM ROUND ROAST/CUBED
• 18 G KOSHER SALT
• 3 G WHITE PEPPER
• 5 G WHITE SUGAR
• 2 G SMOKED GARLIC/FINELY DICED
• 2 G SMOKED ONION/FINELY DICED
• 3 G CORIANDER
• 3 G MARJORAM
• 1 G CELERY POWDER
• 9 G MUSTARD POWDER
• 9 G PAPRIKA
• 30 G NON FALT MILK
• 250 G ICE WATER